The Research On The Reporting Coverage Of The Emergencies In The Perspective Of Building National Image

As the globalization spreads and the media pay more attention to the international relations, China has been more and more emphasizing on the national image and its key influence on the country's international position and development. However, Chinese national image has been intentionally distorted by the western media, and China has been seeking the breakthrough for building an objective, true and nice national image. Recently, the national image of China had been in ups and downs, which is due to Chinese ways of reporting the emergencies. This essay is to clarify the relationship between national image and emergencies in the beginning, and to reflect on how the media dealt with and reported the emergencies in a rational way, by analyzing the typical ones, so as to figure out a new approach to gain the right to speak in the international community through the collaborative efforts by the media and the government, and then build a true and nice national image of China.This essay has approximately 37,000 Chinese characters, mainly comprising of the introduction, the main body and the conclusion.The introduction outlines the background, the research content, the methodologies and the research on relevant theories.The main body covers four parts: the first part includes the definition of national image, and discussion on the importance of national image in terms of political function, economic development, cultural communication and national security. Based on the circumstances of globalization, this part introduces the ideal national image of China and the historical and present national images of China in the Westerners'perspectives, and notes that the media play a key role in building the national image. The intentional distortion of Chinese national image is largely due to its media's inability to report the major emergencies.The second part defines the concept of the emergencies, as well as its important values in terms of journalism and communication. In light of national value orientation and the credibility of government, the relationship between the emergencies and the national image is discussed, concluding that the emergencies influence on the building of national image.The third and fourth parts are the discussions and researches.The third part is the analysis of the recent national image of China. In this part, the author conducted a sampling research on the news coverage by The New York Times and The Guardian, which are the members of the western mainstream media, on the March 14 Event in Lhasha and Wenchuan Earthquake on May 12. As for the reasons for choosing the Western media's reporting on the two events as analysis cases, the reporting approaches by the Western media directly reflect the Western public's recognition and estimation of China. By sorting and categorizing all the relevant reporting coverage by the two media during one month aftermath, tow conclusions are made: firstly, the reporting coverage of the media and relevant news policies of a government will have magnificent influence on the national image; secondly, there are internal and external causes that the intentionally distorting reporting coverage by the Western media harmed the national image of China. The external cause is that the interpretation of China by the Western media are subject to several factors, such as national interests, ideological difference and cultural difference; and the internal one is that the Chinese media and government are inexperienced in dealing with and reporting the emergencies.The fourth part is summarizing the conclusions from the above case analysis, and making suggestions on how to improve the approaches of reporting the emergencies in terms of media and government. The media should establish a scientific and feasible strategy for reporting the emergencies, by utilizing the 3T principles in crisis PR, and providing information as detailed as possible at the first opportunity. Meanwhile, the common human value, the humanitarian spirit, should be emphasized on in the news coverage; the government should disclose the information sources on a controlled basis in the foreign-related news strategies for dealing with the emergencies, to ensure accurate information and open communication channels; besides, the government should emphasize on the system of press spokespersons, to ensure positive interaction with the media, pay attention to the media's influence on the public opinions, and facilitate the complementation between the new and the traditional media.The last is the conclusion, which forecasts the prospect of emergency reporting for building the national image, and notes that multiple-layered and long-term efforts are necessary, and Chinese government and media should develop and improve their approaches to deal with and report the emergencies.